Early Researchers Seminar Series: Staci Weiss (Psychology) and Amanda Rodgers (PDN)

Thursday 11 February 2021, 1pm - 2pm

Unpacking social exposure of expectant parents and newborns during COVID-19​
Staci Weiss (Psychology)

Placental endocrine malfunction programs sex-specific adipose derangements in offspring
Amanda Rodgers (PDN)

Chair: Dr Lucy van de Wiel (Sociology)

This seminar will take place on Zoom; to receive the meeting details, please register first at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0rcO-rpz4pGNJ0dzAN3tKjkSQ8yvcgRm-z.

The Early Researchers Seminar Series (ERSS) is a platform for PhD Students and early career researchers (ECRs) at the University of Cambridge with research foci on reproduction to share and discuss their research with other academics from a range of disciplines also researching reproduction at the University. Seminars are held on Zoom on the second Thursday of every month, 1pm - 2pm. For more information, and for the full 2020 - 2021 programme, please see the main ERSS page.

Speakers and abstracts

Unpacking social exposure of expectant parents and newborns during COVID-19​
Staci Weiss (Psychology)

Since summer 2020, the COVID-19 as a Context for Pregnancy and Infant Parenting (http://tinyurl.com/cocopip) longitudinal study has surveyed new and expecting parents (n= 1000) to assess the impact of changes in health care access, reorganized social lives, maternal stress and socioeconomic disruption on the generation of infants born amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and adjustment to the new normal. Preliminary findings regarding the social exposure of expectant and new mothers will be discussed, in relation to parental mental health, COVID precautions and socio-demographic variables. These results will be contextualized in the literature on child development in wake of allostatic stress exposure during pregnancy, and the mitigating role of social support for new parents.

staci-weiss.jpg

Staci Weiss: As a postdoctoral research associate in the PIPKIN (Perinatal Imaging Partnership with families) longitudinal study of variability within and between infants in social, sensory and cognitive development, my role will be to assist in administering prenatal ultrasounds and subsequently, a neuroimaging battery over the first months of life. My research interests lie in allostatic adaptation in physiological systems during pregnancy and it's long-term impact on the development of child self-regulation. I am also interested in how fetal motor activity is associated with postnatal motor coordination and infant body schema, or the awareness of the topographic arrangement of bodily features, specifically for body parts whose function is entwined with their role as sensory organs (mouth, eyes, etc.).

 

Placental endocrine malfunction programs sex-specific adipose derangements in offspring
Amanda Rodgers (PDN)

It is now established that adverse maternal environments (poor diet, low oxygen levels and high or low BMI) can affect placental and fetal birthweight, as well as programme offspring’s long-term health. The placenta is a source of hormones that regulate nutrient flow to the fetus, however, the precise role of disrupted placental hormone production in the developmental programming of the offspring is unknown. Utilising a mouse model where placental endocrine malfunction was selectively induced (by loss of the imprinted insulin-like growth factor-2 gene in the endocrine zone of the placenta; Jz-ΔIgf2), this project aimed to identify the role of placental endocrine function in the metabolic health of offspring. We found that offspring that had been supported by Jz-ΔIgf2 placentas in utero were insulin resistant as adults. They also had many other changes, such as alterations in adiposity and the abundance of insulin signalling and nutrient handling proteins in their tissues in adulthood, compared to those who had been supported by control placentas. Moreover, many of these programmed changes were sex dependant.

amanda-rodgers.jpg

Amanda Rodgers is a Royal Society-funded PhD student in the Sferruzzi-Perri laboratory, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. Her research is in the field of the developmental origins of health and disease, and focuses on the importance of the endocrine function of the placenta during gestation. Her research particularly focuses on how placental endocrine malfunction can lead to metabolic disorders in the offspring in later life, and uncovering the mechanisms behind this. Before her PhD, Amanda studied Biochemistry at the University of Bristol.